Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (UK Parliament constituency)

Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale
County constituency for the House of Commons
120px Boundary of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale in Scotland.
Current constituency
Created	2005
Member of parliament	David Mundell (Conservative)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Scotland

Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south of Scotland, within the Dumfries and Galloway, South Lanarkshire and Scottish Borders council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting.

The seat has a diverse electoral history, with the Dumfriesshire area being a longtime Conservative seat, the Clydesdale area being formerly safe Labour territory, and Tweeddale had been part of Liberal Democrat voting constituencies since the 1980s. Current Scotland Office minister David Mundell has held the seat since 2005 and since then has been the only Conservative MP representing a Scottish constituency.

A mostly rural constituency, it takes in the towns of Annan, Biggar, Gretna, Langholm, Lockerbie, Moffat and Peebles.

Boundaries

As created by the Fifth Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland the constituency is one of six covering the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area and the South Lanarkshire council area. The other five constituencies are: Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, Dumfries and Galloway, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Lanark and Hamilton East and Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency covers parts of all three council areas. The rest of the Dumfries and Galloway council area is covered by the Dumfries and Galloway constituency; the rest of the Scottish Borders council area is covered by the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency; and the rest of the South Lanarkshire council area is covered by the East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow constituency, the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency, and the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.

The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency is predominantly rural, and the terms of the name refer to the former local government county of Dumfries, the Clydesdale area of the South Lanarkshire council area and the Tweeddale area of the Scottish Borders council area. The Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency excludes, however, most of the town of Dumfries, which is within the Dumfries and Galloway constituency.

Politics

The seat's main predecessor seats: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale, all had distinct political influences. Dumfriesshire had been a Conservative/National Liberal seat from 1931 to 1997, but was lost to Labour's Russell Brown in 1997. Clydesdale had been a safe Labour seat since the 1980s, and Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale had been a Liberal/Liberal Democrat seat since 1983.

Following the boundary review for the 2005 general election, Labour held a clear majority of 12% over the Conservatives according to calculations of notional results (an estimate of how the seat would have voted if it had existed at the previous election) and the seat was 96th in the Conservative's target list. The Liberal Democrats were in a close third place in the seat. However, former Conservative MSP David Mundell was successful in taking the seat from Labour, with a swing of 8.0%. This left him as the only Conservative MP representing a Scottish constituency at the 2005 general election, after the Conservative MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Peter Duncan was defeated in the new Dumfries and Galloway constituency, and Tory attempts to gain Angus from the SNP ended in failure.

In 2010, Mundell was returned as the constituency's MP, with an increased majority. In 2015, after the SNP landslide, he narrowly defeated his SNP rival to remain as the only Scottish Conservative MP elected.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2005	David Mundell	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

General Election 2015: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Mundell	20,759	39.8	+1.8
	SNP	Emma Harper	19,961	38.3	+27.5
	Labour	Archie Dryburgh	7,711	14.8	-14.1
	UKIP	Kevin Newton	1,472	2.8	+1.4
	Liberal Democrats	Amanda Kubie	1,392	2.7	-17.1
	Scottish Green	Jody Jamieson	839	1.6	+0.5
Majority			798	1.5	-7.6
Turnout			52,134	76.1	+7.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	-12.9

General Election 2010: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Mundell	17,457	38.0	+1.9
	Labour	Claudia Beamish	13,263	28.9	−3.4
	Liberal Democrats	Catriona Bhatia	9,080	19.8	−0.5
	SNP	Aileen Orr	4,945	10.8	+1.6
	UKIP	Douglas Watters	637	1.4	+0.4
	Scottish Green	Alis Ballance	510	1.1	+1.1
Majority			4,194	9.1	+5.2
Turnout			45,892	68.9	+0.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	2.6

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Mundell	16,141	36.2
	Labour	Sean Marshall	14,403	32.3
	Liberal Democrats	Patsy Kenton	9,046	20.3
	SNP	Andrew Wood	4,075	9.1
	Scottish Socialist	Sarah MacTavish	521	1.2
	UKIP	Tony Lee	430	1.0
Majority			1,738	3.9
Turnout			44,616	67.6
	Conservative win (new seat)

External links

• The boundaries of the constituency, and its predecessors, can be viewed at Scottish Boundaries Commission's Map Browser.
• The boundaries of the constituency can also be viewed at the Ordnance Survey's Election Maps site.